While AMD and Intel might be keeping schtum about why their kit tips up in the Akihabara hi-tech area yonks before the rest of the world+dog sees it, our readers have, bless you all, come up with their own ideas on this conundrum. Here's a selection of their many replies.

World Online, the Dutch-owned ISP, has 2.2 million customers, of which 1.5 million are in the UK, according to the FT. The other 700,000 customers are scattered over another 15 countries. Wouldn't it be more cost effective to concentrate on territories where it has significant market share? Especially considering the significant losses the company is racking up (79m euros in the red for its last quarter).

Microsoft is gearing up to offer fresh concessions to the European Commission in regard to its bid for a stake in UK cable operator, Telewest.
The software giant is due to submit its renewed offer today, and Microsoft officials were said to be confident they would get clearance to go ahead with the deal, the FT reported.

It was inevitable but not necessarily practical. That's right, you can now relieve your sordid fantasies using a WAP phone. No, not the kinky pics where the inquisitive python has been replaced by new-millennial wireless equipment, we are talking porn WAP sites.

An old and subsequently well-publicised flaw in Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), which allows anyone with a Web browser to gain admin-level access to a server, continues to plague many sites in spite of the availability patches to correct it.

An English friend who spent a few days in Spain was amazed to discover text messages on his mobile sent by the local Spanish mobile network to welcome him to Barcelona. Talk to anyone in the world in the mobile industry and they will tell you (like it's the first time you've heard it) that Europe is ahead in mobile technology for just this reason - a common interface.